With a flurry of powerful kicks and bone crunching punches, Paul Phoenix put down the mighty Balrog with relative ease. The resounding victory even caught the proud fighter by surprise.

“Wow! I won,” whispered Paul.

The loud noises brought his friend Marshall Law and El Fuerte to the scene.

“What happened?” asked Law.

“Nothing much. Just some punk who thought he could steal the prize money,” said Paul.

Law apologized. “Sorry buddy, I didn’t mean to leave you alone for so long. It’s just El Fuerte and I got to talking and he is going to try to set up a meeting with Lau Chan. You know what that could do for my restaurant?”

El Fuerte pointed to the fallen boxer. “Amigo, do you know who that is?”

Paul shrugged.

“That is Balrog, one of the top lieutenants of M. Bison and Shadoloo,” El Fuerte explained.

“Shadow who?” blurted Paul.

Mandalay Bay security were next to arrive to the scene.

“Is everything alright? We saw the fight break out on the security cameras and got here as fast as we could.”

“Relax guys, it’s nothing I couldn’t handle,” Paul boasted.

“We should tell Miss Douglas about this,” suggested Law.

“Hurry, your friend and I shall guard the prisoner,” said El Fuerte.

Paul and Law nodded and Law quickly went to retrieve their employer for the night. Several minutes later, Law returned with Helena Douglas and Chun Li following behind him.

“I don’t believe it,” Chun Li once she caught a full view of the unconscious Balrog. She turned to Paul. “Do you know how long we have been chasing this criminal? You have my sincere thanks and gratitude. You did a great thing this night.”

Paul blushed. “Aww, it was nothing.”

“What a wonderful turn of events,” Helena remarked. “As soon as he regains consciousness we will interrogate him about what his boss is after and hopefully have a better idea of just what exactly our targets are after.”

“We’re going to need some extra strength handcuffs for this goon. Luckily I brought some with me, just in case,” Chun Li noted.

In the ring, Lili raised her arms in victory to the roar of the crowd. She wore a dismissive grin upon her face as she gazed down on her fallen opponent.

“Someone should clean this filth out of the ring before I have to teach her another lesson or two,” she taunted.

Sakura entered the ring to help up her defeated friend, Karin.

“That’s right little school girl, gather her up and get her and her laughable skills out of my ring. I have some celebrating to do,” said Lili.

“You won the match, there is no need to be rude,” Sakura scolded.

“Careful little school girl, I’m on an adrenaline rush right now and I just might feel the need to teach you a lesson too,” warned Lili.

“Don’t tempt me. I think I would receive a lot of satisfaction out of knocking that smug expression off your face,” said Sakua.

“As if you could, don’t make me laugh,” Lili retorted.

Asuka Kazama entered the ring in fear that Lili’s mouth was going to get her into trouble while the two girls continued to verbally go back and forth.

Helena and Chun Li were half way down the aisle with the prize money when Helena’s cell phone made her pause.

“Zack, make your progress report quick darling, you’ve caught me at a bad time....You’ve gathered both Armstrongs and another wrestler?....Your plan is to what?...I like it. Gather all the tournament fighters you can and escort them to the Freedom Survivor...”

Back in the ring, Lili continued her belittlement of Sakura. “And what is with your outfit? That headband and those gloves with those clothes? What look were you going for? A confused 13 year old boy cosplaying as a Sailor Moon character? Pick a style and stick with it, sweetie.”

A frustrated Sakura lifted her leg to strike Lili. At the last moment, Asuka slid in front of the blonde heiress to block the attack.

“I know she can be annoying, but attacking her after a hard fought match would be unfair,” Asuka lectured.

“Fair is more than she deserves,” Sakura remarked.

“Asuka, I don’t need your help,” said Lili.

“Be quiet Lili, I’ve got this.” Asuka returned her attention to Sakura. “Now if it’s a fight your after, I’ve done about all the spectating I can handle tonight. I’ll take you on.”

“Really? I’m always looking for a way to test my abilities.”

“Now hold on a minute, if you think I’m going to let the two of you come in here and steal my spotlight...” Lili protested.

Both Sakura and Asuka glared at Lili.

Lili relented. “Well fine. It’s a bit unusual, but I guess just this once we can have an undercard fight after the main event.”

Chun Li nudged Helena who was still on her phone with Zack. “Shouldn’t we do something about this?”

Helena gazed up at the ring. “Zack, I need to let you go. I will call you back soon for a full update.”

“I will go in there and break it up,” Chun Li decided.

“Now hold on for a moment. I recognize that girl on the left, that is Asuka Kazama. She is kin to Jin Kazama, leader of the Mishima Zaibatsu. I do not know if they are also involved in this pursuit with Victor Donovan and Kazuya Mishima, but I would not be surprised. According to her file, Asuka has no real relationship with Jin, but it might be prudent to see what she does bring to the table. She might make a useful ally,” said Helena. “Besides there is no greater present for a sold out audience than an encore. I just hope that other girl can adequately test Asuka’s abilities. She also looks vaguely familiar.”

“That other girl is Sakura Kasugano. She is one of the strongest young fighters I’ve ever come across,” informed Chun Li.

“Great. It’s settled then.”

“So...uh...do we just continue to stand here with the prize money?” asked Paul.

Good arc and Asuka wins. Asuka I think has more experience and is more skilled then Sakura. Asuka knows the kazama style martial arts and went to learn Ibuka's ninja arts in Street Fighter X Tekken. Sakura on the other hand I always felt is still in training and hasn't fully developed her skills yet.

I agree with baller. I think after fairly hard fight Asuka wins in the end. Sakura is fast though but still needs some improvement. If she will stop being trained under Dan and get trained under Ryu like she use to she might be up there with the greats.

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Posted 09 April 2013 - 12:50 AM

Gah, I've had to do my share of research this past week or so. I'm not too really familiar with this era of fighting games (though I have played as Sakura a few times). Good set-up, though, Johnny.

As for the match, both fighters seem to have some hard-hitting attacks and combos. But while Sakura is more agile, Asuka seems better at counterattacking and has more actual formal training than Sakura. As much as I'd like to see Sakura get past Asuka and knock Lili down a peg, I think Asuka takes this one.